​It is Thursday March 26, 2015 and something remarkable has just happened. By defeating India in the ICC Cricket World Cup Semi Final today, the Australian Cricket Team will take to the pitch against New Zealand on Sunday next as favourites to win the World Cup.

That Australia is a powerhouse of world cricket means this in itself is not entirely surprising.

That several Aussie players shun carbohydrates and sports drinks in favour of a whole foods, higher fat diet to fuel their performance is.

To my knowledge, this is the first time a team in any sport will contest a world final with a significant number of their players relying on a low carbohydrate, high fat fuelling strategy.

If Australia wins the scientists will tell us it's an anecdote. Should New Zealand prevail, it will be "told you so."

In Run on Fat, the Aussie team doctor Dr Peter Brukner (co-author of Clinical Sports Medicine - the accepted "bible" for sports medics), calls this fuelling approach a 1% er.

The big win for Brukner's belief system is coming soon. It may come as early as Sunday. It may not.

Great news, but of course the Black Caps qualified first and a number of them are LCHF or Paleo. So it's even more remarkable that a World Cup in a major sport will be battled out by two teams of with a number of low carb althletes.

Reply

Donal

3/26/2015 08:02:26 am

Even better!! Had heard rumours to that effect Matt, but don't have an inside track to verify!

Reply

Hemming

3/27/2015 06:04:00 am

Cricket is a very technical sport, there are many other aspects than just how they fuel. I don't think you can draw any conclusions regardless of the outcome. Nevertheless, its very interesting and great to see this development. It would be really interesting to see athletes in other sports more reliant on physical performance (I know cricket requires that too) fueling on fat to see if they can compete against their peers.

Reply

Donal

3/28/2015 06:07:29 pm

What's interesting is that the players seem to be drawing their own conclusions Hemming - Dr Brukner does not impose this on any player in the Australian squad. If they ask him, he offers advice/guidance but the other low carb players have responded to early adopters like Shane Watson and Dave Warner's experiences. Dr Brukner calls it a 1% er but at this level that can of course be critical. Interesting times!

Reply

Hemming

3/29/2015 01:23:51 am

Its very interesting. I'm really hoping to see much more of this in the future. Maybe athletes from other sports will start contacting Dr. Brukner. I think athletes need to have someone with experience of physical performance to make them try it. A doctor saying it is not enough.